I went running this week. Well sort of. As much as running at 50% of my body weight counts for "real running".As you may remember I spent all of last summer training on the Alter G, a high-tech sciency looking treadmill. Quick recap...the Alter-G allows you to run at a certain percentage of your body weight and is an ideal way to ease back into running without running the risk of hurting yourself again.
When I first stepped on the Alter-G this past Tuesday I was a little bit mystified to say the least. Running...has sadly become so foreign to me that, as much as it pains me to tell you this, I forgot how to run. Yes, I did. The treadmill started moving and I was already suspended at the 50% and I just kind of lifted up my feet and started this awkward aqua-jogging movement. I literally forgot to put my feet down on the ground. I floundered around for a second until I got into the rhythm. But I made it. And that's the important part. Not only did I just make it, I ran 40 minutes at roughly 7:20 pace. As amazing as that was Thursday was even better. My knees have been giving me some grief as you all know, so I didn't think that I would get to run, but sure enough I was allowed to.
My heel, however, hasn't been giving me any problems. I feel like all of a sudden I had some sort of miraculous healing. In fact, I feel like I could run. I feel like I could fly sometimes (wouldn't you at 50% of your body weight?)
So not only did I get to run, I also have gotten back on the bike after a whole week off. Because, as I may have stated before, I'm an idiot and decided to do 250 miles of biking one week (including but not limited to 4 spin classes in 6 days. ) But luckily I've been taking care of my knee and taking it easy and working on my alignment.
According to my physical therapist, my long history of knee problems stems primarily from some alignment problems. When I do whatever I do...bike, run, climb stairs etc...my knees tend to bow inward because of some underdeveloped VMO muscles and some nonexistant hip strength (yeah. that one I knew) and just because apparently thats how my natural mechanics work and my body can't figure out how to do it correctly. So, he said that when I'm walking, climbing, biking, to just to be conscious of keeping my knees straight over my toes, even if it feels like I'm forcing them outwards a bit. And BAM! all of a sudden my knee starts hurting less and less every day. In fact, if I concentrate really, really hard during exercise they've actually been feeing better after biking and ellipticalling. Why? WHY? didn't someone tell me this crucial piece of information when I spend alllll last summer struggling through patellofemoral huh?
And I've also been doing quite a bit of yoga to work on core strength, hip strength, and knee flexibility. Plus the meditative aspect has been helping me quite a bit as well.
Oh....and the most important part? Today in Madison was a little exhibition called Bike O' Rama. There were many, many beautiful things there. Including these which came home with me. :)
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